smith



(No Model.)

D. L. SMITH. BUCKLE No. 476,566. Patented June 7, 1892.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DIVIGHT L. SMITH, OF \VATERBURY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TOEARL A. SMITH, OF SAME PLACE.

BUCKLE.

QEECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent No. 476,566, dated June 7,1892.

Application filed December 21, 1891. Serial No. 415,768. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DWIGHT L. SMITH, of lVaterbury, in the county of NewHaven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement inBuckles; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connectionwith accompanying drawings and the letters of reference markedthereon,to be afull, clear, and exact description of the same, and

[O which said drawings constitute part of this specification, andrepresent, in-

Figure 1, a front View of the buckle; Fig. 2, a side view of the bucklecomplete; Fig. 3, a horizontal section on line mac of Fig. 2; Fig.

4, a vertical section on line y y of Fig. 1; Fig. 5, the frame detached;Fig. 6, a side view of the frame; Fig. 7, a perspective View of thebearing-bar detached; Fig. 8, the blank from which thebea-ring-bar isformed; Fig. 9, a perspective view of the lever detached; Figs. 10

and 11, modifications.

This invention relates to an improvementin that class of buckles whichare made principally from wire and specially adapted for 2 5 suspenders,and particularly to that class in which the frame is provided with abearingbar, combined with a lever hinged to the frame, so as to graspthe Suspender between the said lever and the bearing-bar, and is animprovement upon the buckle for which Letters Patent No. 378,732 weregranted to this applicant February 28, 1888. I11 that patent thebuckle-frame is made from'wire bent to form the two sides and the twoends, the ends of the wire brought together upon one side.Longitudinally across the frame is a bearing-- bar made from sheet metaland secured to the ends of the frame. In the ends of the frame a leveris hung, the lever made from wire, the wire doubled, and the branchesturned to the right and left at the upper end of the lever and so as toform pivots in the frame, and to the wire lever thus hunga sheetmetaljaw is attached, adapted to grasp the suspender between the edge of thejaw and the said bar and so that by swinging the lever outward theengagement between the jaw and the suspender is released, so as topermit the adjustment of the suspender. This construction makes theclamping-jaw rigid and unyielding.

I slight.

The object of my present improvementis to make the lever elastic and soas to produce an elastic clamping-jaw. To this end my invention consistsin the construction as here- 5 5 inafter described, and particularlyrecited in the claims.

The frame is composed of two sides A N, connected by two ends C C, theframe being made from wire bent into the required shape, as seen in Fig.5, the two ends of the wire preferably brought together upon the upperside B and inclosed by a tubular clip as a means for securing the twoends together and as usual in this class of buckles. The lower side ofthe frame is preferably bent to form a depending hook a, as usual inthis class of buckles; but for this depending hook other engagingdevices for the Suspender-ends may be substituted. The ends of the frameare bent backward midway of their length, as at b b, so as to make aslight offset on the front of the face of the frame of substantially thethickness of the sheet-metal bar to lee-attached to the frame. Midwayofthis depressed portion of the ends a U-shaped forward bend dis formedand so as to produce pivot-bearing recesses e on the rear side of theframe, as clearly seen in Fig. 6.

D represents the bearing-bar, which is made from sheet metal cut from ablank, as seen in Fig. 8. This bar is best made of substantially Vshape, as seen in Fig. 8, the angle being The width of this bar at theends corresponds to the width of the depressions 8 5 formed in the endsof the frame, and the blank for the bar is constructed with longitudinaltongues f at each end distant from each other and so as to leave arecessg at the ends corresponding to the length of the bends 9c cl on the endsof the frame, and the bar is of a length so much greater than the lengthof the frame as to permit a. rearward bend to be made near the end ofthe frame, so as to produce an ofiset h at each end of the bar, as seen5 in Fig. 7. The length between the offsets GOI responds substantiallyto the length of the frame between the two ends. The upper or \I- shapededge of the bar is preferably toothed or serrated and is turned forwardto form an outwardly-projecting jaw i. The bar is applied to the frameso as to bring the recess g of the ends of the bar onto the bends d, andthe tongues 'i are closed around the ends of the frame in the depressedportion and at each end of the bend (Z, as clearly seen in Figs. 1 and2. The placing of this bar upon the frame and bending the tongues aroundthe frame, as described, brings a portion of the bar over the openings 6on the frame and so as to close those openingsto complete thelever-pivot bearings.

The lever is made from wire, preferably doubled to form a loop or handleE, (see Fig. 9,) adapted to embrace the depending hook a of the frame.The branches of the wire above the loop are turned to the right and leftto form the jaw F, and these bends correspond to the shape of the bar.If the bar is V- shaped or inclined from the face toward the center,as'shown, the branches forming the jaw will be inclined accordingly, asseen in Fig. 9. At the ends of the jaw the branches are turned forwardto form offsets G in a horizontal plane, and then the ends are turnedoutward to form pivots H in line with each other. The length of the jawbetween the offsets G G corresponds substantially to the distancebetween the ends of the frame, and the pivots are adapted to enter theseats 6 in the frame, as shown. The extent of the offsets G in the levercorresponds to the offsets in the bearing-bar, so that the jaw portionof the lever projects toward the bearing-bar and operates like a cam andso that when the lever is turned downward, as represented in Fig. 4, thejaw will impinge upon the suspender and clamp it against thebearing-bar; but when the lever is turned outward, as represented inbroken lines, Fig. 4-, the jaw will be turned downward away from thesuspender and bearing-bar, as represented in broken lines, Fig. 4., soas to leave the suspender free for adjustment. The length of the loop Eof the lever is somewhat less than that of the depending hook, and theshape of the loop is such as to permit the loop to pass rearward overthe hook, as seen in Figs. 2 and The jaw portion of the lever because ofbeing unsustain ed other than by the strength of the wire itself andthat wire being elastic will yield downwardly as the loop passes overthe hook and so as to react as the loop passes beyond the bend of thehook, and thereby raise the loop above the bend of the hook, asrepresented in Figs. 2 and 4t, thus interlocking the lever with the hookwhen the jaw is in the clamping position. This loop also serves as aguard to prevent the accidental detachment of the suspender-ends, asusual in this class of lever-loops. By this construction of the lever aconsiderable elasticity is permitted the lever, so that it is adapted toyield to different thicknesses of suspenders and yet make firm grasp ofthe suspender against the clamping-jaw, as well as to yield for theinterlocking of the loop with the book, as described.

It is not essential to the invention that the lever shall be constructedso as to form a loop to embrace the hook, as it may be made, asrepresented in Fig. 10, to simply form a handle. The V shape of the jawportion of the lever has a great advantage over such a jaw madestraight. The diagonal shape of the jaw produces an engagement betweenthe jaw and the suspender practically over so much greaterlength of thesuspender than it would do if the jaw were straight as the extent of theinclination, and so that the diagonal hold of the jaw is veryconsiderably greater than it would be with the straight jaw; but it maybe straight, as seen in Fig. 10.

Vhile preferring the construction of the pivot-bearings as I havedescribed by making the U-shaped bends in the ends of the frame andcovering the open side of the bends with the bearing-bar, thepivot-bearings may be made as seen in Fig, 11. I11 this case the ends ofthe bearing-bar are turned forward through recesses formed in the endsof the frame and so as to produce projecting ears forward of the frame,and these ears are pierced to receive the pivot ends of the lever. Thesame advantage which is attained by the offsets in the lever is found inthis construction, substantially as in the first illustration.

1 claim 1. A buckle having the frame made from wire composed of twosides and two ends, a bearingbar longitudinally across the frame andsecured at the two ends of the frame, a lever made from wire doubled toform the loop or handle of the lever, and the two branches turned to theright and left and at the ends offset in a horizontal plane, the extremeends of the offsets turned to the right and left to form pivots by whichthe leveris hung to the frame, substantially as described, and wherebythe jaw portion of thelever is made elastic.

2. A buckle consisting of a frame, with a bearing-bar extending acrossthe frame, the bar otfset rearward between the ends of the frame,combined with a lever made from wire bent at the center to form ahandle, the two branches turned to the right and left from the saidhandle and in diagonal lines from each other, so as to producesubstantially a V shape, the said branches bent forwardnear their endsto form offsets G in a horizontal plane and the extreme ends from theseoffsets turned to the right and left and into line with each other toform pivots H H, the said lever hung in the said frame by the saidpivots, and whereby the said diagonal branches of the lever offset fromthe pivots is adapted to impinge upon the bearing-bar, substantially asdescribed.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence oftwo subscribing witnesses.

DWIGHT L. SMITH.

Vitnesses:

JAMES S'rovELL, ALBERT D. SMITH.

